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Don't kill my app

dontkillmyapp.com

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Re: Don't kill my app

#61

Post by guappa »

sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

> I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would have to set my destination again.

So the map app is buggy… my expectation would be that it should be fixed.

Re: Don't kill my app

#62

Post by deely3 »

sebtron wrote: post #14
Torlan wrote: post #4

Don’t kill my battery

Can't you close your apps when you don't want them to stay open? The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map my search would be gone. So no please, don't kill my app when I don't want you to.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like this. You can close the app, but app will wake up on any event - timer, call from server, any system event, etc. etc.

Re: Don't kill my app

#63

Post by guappa »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #19
sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

Why can't the app save its state to storage and restore the saved state when it's started again?

Because the developers are not skilled.

Re: Don't kill my app

#64

Post by g-b-r »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #19
sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

Why can't the app save its state to storage and restore the saved state when it's started again?

These phones go much farther the already absurd limitations of standard Android ("we know what apps a user doesn't care about so we'll kill them without asking, at any time").

Most developers are not aware of them, and in any case it's very hard to constantly save all the state

Hardly any previous system in the history of computers has ever required it, and Android's developer documentation doesn't highlight enough how much it's required.

Most of all it's the fault of these phones' extreme, undeclared, undocumented and absurd behavior anyhow.

Re: Don't kill my app

#65

Post by g-b-r »

isodev wrote: post #47
sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

You're describing bad app implementation. It is quite common for the OS to suspend apps when they're in the background or when the device is under low memory/power conditions. The fact that you as a user are experiencing it in the form of degraded functionality is a bug with the app itself and should be addressed by the developer. As a reference, check iOS apps where the system monitors and controls each app's resour…

These phones kill apps, not suspend them.

Re: Don't kill my app

#66

Post by g-b-r »

kqr wrote: post #39
toast0 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's worse is when the task switching app and/or the home screen app have to be restarted. My phone only has 4 GB ram, cause it's nearly 3 years old and low cost, but still... I feel like windows 95 could run (poorly) on 4 MB and the start button and the task bar never swapped out. (Well explorer.exe did crash from time to time)

I have to admit I haven't fact-checked this on my own but I have it on fairly good authority that several versions of Windows could swap themselves out, sometimes resulting in a bluescreen.

Windows has ALWAYS asked the user which processes to kill under memory stress, except in the most extreme of conditions (when it crashed).

Android and iPhones thought they'd look cooler if they didn't, resulting in a decade of endless frustration for many users.

Re: Don't kill my app

#67

Post by guappa »

sebtron wrote: post #18
dreamcompiler wrote: post #13

I don't have much sympathy for this idea. The vast majority of apps don't need to do anything in the background, but almost every app thinks it's the only app on your phone and wants to be running and online 24/7 so it can constantly send you notifications, mine your personal info, and upsell you on crap you don't need. This is why we can't have nice things. It's a tragedy of the commons where the commons is your bat…

Many app need to keep state while they are in background though. Imagine your browswer tabs reloading every time you swotch to a different app and back.

You can… save a file?

Re: Don't kill my app

#68

Post by g-b-r »

pretext-1 wrote: post #45
sebtron wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many app need to keep state while they are in background though. Imagine your browswer tabs reloading every time you swotch to a different app and back.

Doesn’t mean your apps need to run in the background all the time. State restoration is a concept that has been present in Android/iOS from the beginning (or almost) and many apps implement it successfully. This is not why the “Don’t kill my app” author wants to run in the background. Also Android has ongoing notifications which let your app stay running forever and iOS introduced Live Activities in iOS 16 which can…

No, even apps displaying a constant notification get killed, just less often.

Re: Don't kill my app

#69

Post by SwiftyBug »

MzHN wrote: post #51

It's weird how this can be an issue in both directions. There are times when I don't want the OS to kill an app, and the OS can often fail in this aspect, causing loss of control. However even more frustratingly, I've increasingly noticed that apps I only need rarely, maybe once a day, once a month, once a year, will still run in the background even with setting the app's battery settings in the OS to restricted. The…

Perhaps the OS recognizes those apps you use less as the ones that historically cause the least impact on battery, hence allowing them to run on background? If that is the case, this is pretty dumb.

Re: Don't kill my app

#70

Post by SwiftyBug »

osener wrote: post #20
sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

This somehow seems to have become an inevitable reality of mobile phones. I had to upgrade from my iPhone 7 because it had essentially become a “single-process OS” where even switching to Google Translate to help me compose a message would have the messaging app killed in the background. And now I am experiencing similar issues, although not as severely yet, with my iPhone 12 Pro Max. Restarting the phone seems to he…

I just replaced my iPhone 7 for the 13. I didn't notice a behaviour like what you described. Except for the Maps app while I had energy saver mode on.
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